Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

Journal of Paleontology

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Web of Science (5) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by ROBERTS, E. M. Articles by FOREMAN, B. Z. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

CONTINENTAL INSECT BORINGS IN DINOSAUR BONE: EXAMPLES FROM THE LATE CRETACEOUS OF MADAGASCAR AND UTAH

¹ Corresponding author: School of Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Wits 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa, <robertse{at}geosciences.wits.ac.za>
² Geology Department, Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota, <rogers{at}macalester.edu> and <bradyf{at}umich.edu>

Two new insect-related ichnogenera are reported in fossil dinosaur bones from Upper Cretaceous continental strata in Madagascar and Utah. Cubiculum ornatus n. igen. and isp. is described from numerous fossil bones in the Upper Cretaceous Maevarano Formation of northwestern Madagascar, and consists of hollow, ovoid chambers with concave flanks excavated into both spongy and compact bone. Traces similar in morphology to Cubiculum ornatus have been reported elsewhere in North America, Asia, Europe, and Africa in bones ranging in age from Jurassic to Pleistocene, and have been interpreted as pupal chambers constructed by carrion beetle larvae. Osteocallis mandibulus n. igen. and isp. is described in dinosaur bones from continental deposits of the Upper Cretaceous Maevarano Formation of Madagascar and the Upper Cretaceous Kaiparowits Formation of southern Utah. O. mandibulus consists of shallow, meandering surface trails, composed of numerous arcuate grooves, bored into compact (cortical) bone surfaces, and is tentatively interpreted as a feeding trace. Based on similar patterns of bioglyph preserved in both Cubiculum ornatus and Osteocallis mandibulus, the tracemaker is interpreted to be the same or similar for both borings. Given the recurrent association with animal remains, the tracemaker is furthermore presumed to be a necrophagous or osteophagous insect that used bone as a substrate for both reproduction (C. ornatus) and feeding (O. mandibulus).

This article has been cited by other articles:

				K. S. BADER, S. T. HASIOTIS, and L. D. MARTIN APPLICATION OF FORENSIC SCIENCE TECHNIQUES TO TRACE FOSSILS ON DINOSAUR BONES FROM A QUARRY IN THE UPPER JURASSIC MORRISON FORMATION, NORTHEASTERN WYOMING Palaios, March 1, 2009; 24(3): 140 - 158. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]